THE ISRAEL YOUNG ACADEMY NEWSLETTER Issue # 1 | Winter 2018, Jerusalem Contact Us: The Israel Young Academy Albert Einstein Square, 43 Jabotinsky Street, Jerusalem 9214116, Israel www.young.academy.ac.il Tel: +972-2-5676205, Email: [email protected] facebook.com/YoungAcademyIL THE ISRAEL YOUNG ACADEMY NEWSLETTER Issue # 1 Dear colleagues, It is a great pleasure to introduce this edition of the newsletter of the Israel Young Academy. The newsletter presents the work of our members and shares some of our recent activities. The Israel Young Academy was established in 2012 as an incubator for ideas and Prof. Ron Milo initiatives to leverage Israel’s academic abilities. We reach out to policymakers, Chair of the educators, senior academic administrators and the general public for the sake of Israel Young Academy turning our passions for creating and disseminating knowledge into action. Our team includes 28 researchers in various fields of the humanities and the natural and social sciences from all of Israel’s universities. Members, up to age 45 in the year of their election, are elected to four-year terms, based on their academic excellence and outstanding initiatives. This is an especially appropriate timeframe for our activities. As mid-career academics, we already enjoy security in our professions but are not yet saddled with major academic and administrative burdens. Our connection to the early stages of an academic career is still strong, giving us insight into the needs of students, recent postdocs and young faculty members. Many of us have children in the public school system, so it is a perfect time to initiate change on that front as well. Our recent activities cover a wide range: displaying the achievements of Israeli science in the departures concourse of Ben-Gurion Airport, building new academic silk roads connecting high school pupils and universities, interacting with policymakers to advance scientific research, participating in joint workshops with members of other young academies, surveying the needs of young scholars entering the academic job market and hosting the Young Asian Academics Conference in Jerusalem. In all these, we aspire to make positive changes and, as academics, to participate in creating a better society. We hope that you will find our activities relevant to the challenges you face as well. We would love to share our experiences and initiate dialogue with young academics around the globe. Please do not hesitate to contact us regarding any inquiries or initiatives you have. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my partners in managing the Israel Young Academy: Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten and Prof. Michal Feldman; the Academy's secretary, Ms. Merav Atar; and the creators of this newsletter, Ms. Sinai Harel and Prof. Nissim Otmazgin. Prof. Ron Milo Chair of the Israel Young Academy 2 THE ISRAEL YOUNG ACADEMY NEWSLETTER Issue # 1 Bringing the Humanities Back to the Academic Center Conference Summary Jerusalem, March 2017 In March 2017, the Young Academy held a conference to draw inspiration from one another's initiatives entitled "The Humanities, Academia and Schools," in and ideas, and to enrich their understanding of the collaboration with the pedagogical secretariat of the complex challenges faced by the humanities in Israel's Ministry of Education. Leading the conference were education system. Young Academy members Prof. Jonathan Ben-Dov, Dr. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, Prof. Eran Bouchbinder, Many speakers pointed to the deteriorating status of Dr. Sharon Aronson-Lehavi and Prof. Elisheva the humanities, trying to shed light on the sources Baumgarten. of the problem and emphasizing its importance. "Promoting and cultivating the humanities is Among the conference participants were policymakers imperative in order to realize our full potential as from the Ministry of Education, the Council for Higher human beings," said Rachela Schiffer of the Ministry Education and local councils, as well as figures from of Education. The conviction that humanities subjects inside the education system, including supervisors, are more than just facts and knowledge, but also shape school principals, teachers and academics. By bringing students' behavior, values and morals, was apparent together individuals engaged in education at different throughout the conference. In this age of rapidly levels and through various channels, the conference progressing technology and immediate satisfaction offered a unique opportunity for the participants of every whim, many felt that a revitalization of Bringing the Humanities Back to the Academic Center 3 THE ISRAEL YOUNG ACADEMY NEWSLETTER Issue # 1 the humanities would provide students with much- school pupils. Various institutes and programs promote needed critical thinking skills to go out into the world such projects by creating programs for outstanding and be involved in it. pupils, training teachers and academics in mentoring, and holding award-winning competitions for research One of the conference's aims was to establish projects in the humanities. Lastly, programs for connections between the various agents promoting teacher training and development were presented. the humanities within the system. Prof. Jonathan Ben-Dov addressed this issue in his opening remarks, in which he spoke of the importance of the connection between schools and academia, which already exists and has shown its value in the natural sciences, but not yet in the humanities. Prof. Yossi Shain of the Council of Higher Education's Planning and Budgeting Committee also stressed the importance of creating continuity between the secondary and tertiary education systems as one way of halting the stagnation of the humanities in academia. Alongside these presentations, the conference's participants and panels raised important issues for The conference included six sessions and presented consideration. These included the need to address the 26 initiatives, each providing a different perspective crisis in the humanities not only at the high school on the state of the humanities in various environments level but also at the primary and middle schools levels; and circumstances. Proponents of policy-oriented evaluation methods that may overlook or misjudge the initiatives focused on promoting the humanities humanities; local authorities as a significant resource and regaining their lost prestige through structural in promoting various initiatives and projects; and reforms – for example, by creating new career paths the tendency to target the relatively small group of for teacher-researchers or changing the requirements outstanding pupils while disregarding average and below- for a high school diploma. Others presented average pupils. The discussions also emphasized how enrichment programs both inside and outside the academics could benefit from promoting the humanities schools, aimed at developing skills such as writing in schools. Engaging in such activities provides them and critical reading of challenging materials, while with opportunities not only to disseminate knowledge, creating a learning community. Another approach but also to test their theories with curious and critical to enrichment was to introduce new subjects into young minds in their home environment. the high school curriculum, such as Middle Eastern Studies and European and East Asian languages. Many conference participants called for strengthening the humanities at various levels and through diverse Further initiatives emphasized learning methods that means, and spoke of the need for cooperation between promote the development of inquiry-based learning the Ministry of Education, local councils and the third by using primary sources. Matriculation projects were sector. We hope that the conference created a foundation also highlighted as offering potentially meaningful for future collaboration and inspired the participants to and positive experiences in the humanities for high keep striving to promote the humanities. Bringing the Humanities Back to the Academic Center 4 THE ISRAEL YOUNG ACADEMY NEWSLETTER Issue # 1 An Interview with Prof. Tamar Ziegler by Sinai Harel Prof. Tamar Ziegler "Sometimes you can go for months without making any advance at all. Yet it isn’t really true that nothing happened; hitting a wall is in itself progress" Department of Mathematics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Tell me a little about yourself and your research. For example, say you are making dough. You have your I am a mathematician. I received all my degrees from ingredients inside your bowl, and the process of mixing the Hebrew University and then did my postdoctoral the dough is your evolving system. One such operation research in the U.S. for five years, three at Ohio State is called the baker's transformation, in which you take University, one at the Institute for Advanced Studies the left side of the dough, put it on top and press down. in Princeton and one at the University of Michigan. I Typically, an ergodic theorist would be interested in was a faculty member at the Technion (Israel Institute how well the ingredients mix over time. Another of Technology) for five years. I have been a professor example involves a box with gas particles inside. In this at the Hebrew University since 2013. I was elected a case, the system would be the position and momentum member of the Young Academy two years ago. of each particle at any given time. One starts out with an initial condition, in which each particle's location My research is at the interface